Winter is officially over!

At least until Saturday, when the next snow is scheduled to arrive. But, after that, clear sailing, warm winds, blossoms…… oh, wait, there’s another wintry blast on the horizon for late next week. Dang! Are you tired of winter, too, or is it just me?

One very nice feature of our apartment is the location, of course. The wintry view on the left is a shot taken from the patio which overlooks the forest and the creek (not too visible in this shot due to snowfall and ground fog). Don’t you wish YOU lived in the woods?

The Winter Olympics have been a nice diversion to take our minds off cabin fever. Not much of a fan of ice dancing, figure skating, all that, but the ski competitions and the snow (ice?) boarding has been neat to watch. We watched some of the biathlon yesterday – kinda neat when they plopped down in the snow to do the shooting, but I think it would add some drama to the event if they were allowed to shoot at the other skiers who were struggling up the slope. In a similar way, maybe the snow board racing might be spiced up with the addition of spears, swords and shields. “Poor Sven, he almost completed that last turn, but wound up with a spear in his back. So close!”

We went ‘downtown’ yesterday to get some snow pictures, and it was quite pleasant except for the constant snow in our faces and the biting winds. LD (little doggie) went along – Kate had to carry her since LD’s legs are only 4 inches long. We thought it might be a good idea to stop in for some coffee or hot chocolate, but a) we had the dog with us, and b) the restaurant and cafe were closed because of the arctic weather conditions. I think we were the only nuts who were out strolling the square.

The tendency for me at least is to try to look ahead to warmer conditions and try to block out the ice and snow we’re currently having. The Maple Syrup Festival is coming up the last weekend of February, continuing into the first weekend of March, hopefully things will be more tolerable by then. We’ll be heading up to Salem, Indiana, about 30 miles north of here. Want us to bring you some maple goodies?

Some of the locals have been suspicious that maybe we brought all this frigid weather with us when we moved from Denver. So far no torch-bearing crowds of villagers outside, but the nastygrams in the snow have been a little un-nerving. Why are they heating tar? Some Indiana custom, apparently.